Chapter 74: Mark had inferiority complex
"What?" Michael exclaimed in disbelief.
There was such a thing?
"I have no idea why such a ceremony was held or why it had such names even when males were selected." Nana continued. "But that ceremony was held in your family as well."
Why?
"Your elder brother was three years old, and he was praised as a genius. He was very sensible and hardworking for his age. He already knew what the adults were talking about, even when he had only started learning letters a year back. He was said to be a special child, a child with a great trait. And so, your parents got ready for the female selection."
"Do they even know what a ’female’ is?" Michael asked.
"I don’t know. And I don’t think they care. No one ever asked either." Nana said. "All I know is that someone with a powerful presence always comes to check the child. And if they are ’it’, they give the child a ’gift’, wishing them to grow up healthy and proud as they would be the pride of their family one day. The one to lead their family into great connections."
Nana was using various terms that she didn’t understand too well. She spoke according to her memories and not her understanding.
But Michael, who had recently been aware of the existence of ’females’ knew what this was about.
So, his family held a ’female selection’ ceremony without knowing what it was for, only having the future in mind, hoping to make connections with great people.
They expected their first and only son at that time to fit the bill and make them proud, but things did not go according to their plans at all.
"The influential man with a strong presence came, and he took a look at Mark." Nana continued. "But after a single glance, he turned away from him and towards your mother. I don’t know what happened or how he was able to tell when no one else had known, but he pointed at your mother’s belly and said, ’The one in your belly is more worthy’."
Michael’s eyes widened.
Such a thing and in front of so many people?
Michael’s mother did not understand at first, and she did not know she was pregnant. After a test, it was shown that she was indeed pregnant. A few weeks pregnant.
And Mark’s worthiness had been compared to a life that had only been formed a few weeks back.
It was such a humiliating event for him. One he could never let go of.
"Because Mark felt the need to prove that the intimidating man was wrong in saying you were better than him from birth, he decided to ruin you and show the world, show that intimidating man that you were never and would never be better than him."
Michael remembered Mark saying ’that bastard’ made the wrong choice by choosing him. So, he assumed ’that bastard’ was the man who did the choosing in the ’female selection’ ceremony.
But to think Mark had been so narrow-minded even at a young age. Sure, he had his position taken from him, but how could he be so cunning and cruel from so young?
"And your parents always took Mark’s side because they believed you had taken his well-deserved future, and that was why they always downgraded your effort and compared you to him."
Michael bit his lip as he bowed his head. To think he was suffering from a reason like that.
No matter how they twisted the story. It all pointed to Mark’s inferiority complex and vicious heart. He... He didn’t deserve all that suffering.
Mark ended up ruining his life, so was that why he was no longer approached for being the selected female? They must’ve looked at him like he was some kind of disappointment and disgrace, unfit to be in their prestigious family.
If he put in the words Noah had said, then he understood his situation very well. He, a female, was not supposed to be out in the world like this without a mark from an Alpha.
So, he had truly been abandoned.
"Anyway, the reason why I brought this up is because I felt that same strong and intimidating presence in the man who came to visit the day after your mother came back from seeing you. I knew she had met you because she wouldn’t stop ranting about how you had acted so arrogantly and let some man slam the door in her face."
’Whoa, Noah did that?’ Michael thought, impressed, but he quickly shoved that thought aside. What he should have been focused on was the fact that, if he wasn’t mistaken, a werewolf paid his parents a visit after his mother came to cause him trouble.
"Do you know what they talked about?" Michael asked.
"No, but..."
"Sorry to interrupt," Pedro said as he walked up to them. "But it’s already over. If you want to see your family one last time, you should go and do it now."
Michael shook his head. What was there to see? It was just their ashes.
Compared to that, he would rather listen to Nana a bit more.
After hearing why his parents and his brother had been so cruel to him, he felt he had wasted his tears on them.
No matter what he did in the past or what he would’ve done in the future, they would’ve never acknowledged him if they were alive. And Mark would’ve continued to find ways to mess with his life.
Mark definitely deserved to burn to death. And as for his parents... He got up and said to Nana,
"I’ll be back. Please wait for me here." He said, and she nodded, though she looked a little uncomfortable with the idea.
... His parents probably just wanted to make it up for their son, who had been hurt. It was their love for him that made them that way.
Their love for Mark that made them hurt him.
He could not forgive them. And he was going to let them know about it.
He stood in front of their ash that had been out in a coffin and bowed his head.
"I know you aren’t in heaven right now," he said. "And I know you aren’t watching over me either, because why would you, right? You never watched over me while you were alive, so why would you do so when you’re dead?"
He paused and bit his lip.
"I just want you to know that it’s my win." He said, his lips crinkling up in a mad laugh. "Mark, even if you wanted me dead, in the end, I survived, and you died first. It’s ironic, right?"
He suddenly fell silent as the worst he wished to say, the words that had always dug into his heart, had begun to evade him and leave him with no words at all.
"I..." He opened his mouth to speak. "I wish that you would continue gnashing your teeth in anger as you watch me live my life with bliss. Mother, father, I hope you two stay together wherever you go and watch over your horrible son so he doesn’t cause more trouble for others in the afterlife."
He bowed his head one last time and then raised it, gazing at their pictures with loathing in his eyes.
"Goodbye." He said and turned around.
Michael had let out the resentment in his chest to some degree as he said what he wanted to say. And for those words he could not say, he wished that just as they had disappeared from his heart and mind in that moment, they would disappear forever.
He did not need to carry such burdens in his heart any longer.
He walked back to where he was sitting, only to find out that Nana had gone, and Pedro was the only one there. He looked around with his eyes, but she wasn’t in the funeral house.
"Where did Nana go?" He asked in a rush as he approached Pedro. There were still so many things he needed to hear.
Like what happened after that intimidating man came, and why had his father sent them all away?
Only Nana could tell him the truth, but she was suddenly gone.
"She said she had to leave." Pedro said.
"What? Why so suddenly?" Michael asked in distress.
"I don’t know, but she looked a little panicked." Pedro said. "She did leave a message."
"What did she say?"
"She said, ’The intimidating man might be watching you’." He said, and Michael’s heart thumped.
Pedro gave him a suspicious look, wondering what they had been talking about and what was with a suspicious man?
Michael gritted his teeth and ran out. He needed to find Nana. Just hearing that the intimidating man was watching him made him want to know more.
Just what did he talk to his parents about? Why did his father change his mind? Why did a fire burn and kill them all?
He wasn’t looking for answers in order to get revenge. He needed those answers so that he could protect himself from the potential harm that was after him.
He got outside and saw Nana through the window of a taxi.
"Nana!" He called, but she could not hear, and the taxi started driving.
Michael, instead of flagging a taxi, raced after Nana.
He needed an explanation. He needed answers.
It was cold outside. Very cold.
It was winter already, and it could snow any moment. Winter... Such a cold time of the year.
